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Foul fumes — the result of unnatural algae growth followed by its death and decomposition — have sporadically wafted from the Andree Clark Bird Refuge since it was built in 1929, but the rotten egg-like stink now coming from the 29-acre lake has city residents and officials wrinkling their noses and scratching their heads more than usual. That’s because the Parks and Recreation Department knows what is happening, but not why it is or how to fix it.

Every so often — the last instance was around July 4, 2009 — algae in the Bird Refuge goes on a growth streak, typically fed by warm temperatures, plenty of sunlight, and fertilizers and other nutrients that wash down from the fairways of the Montecito Country Club and the lawns that sit in a 844-acre urban watershed above. Poop from the dozens of bird species that live at the lake also nourishes the algae. (The Bird Refuge was originally a salt marsh that received fresh water from Sycamore Creek, but railroad construction in the 1880s rerouted the creek. Now, the only “fresh” water that enters the lake is runoff and rainwater.)

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When the algae bloom reaches a tipping point, at which the plant life runs out of oxygen and space, it starts to die, explained UCSB ecology professor Scott Cooper. Bacteria that thrive in low-oxygen environments then munch on the material, releasing hydrogen sulfide, hence the noxious funk. The overall process is called eutrophication and also occurs at Lake Los Carneros and Campus Lagoon at UCSB, Cooper went on. In past years, when the issue popped up at the Bird Refuge the cycle of growth and decay was triggered by especially hot days and low water levels, two factors notably absent this time around. So why is it happening now? “To be honest, we don’t know,” said Jill Zachary, assistant Parks and Recreation director.

In 2009, the Bird Refuge was about half full, and city workers simply filled it the rest of the way with fresh water to eliminate the smell. Right now the lake is full. Therefore, Zachary explained, the city has deployed a small skiff with an outboard motor to churn and aerate the water. It ran Wednesday and will make a number of laps again Thursday. City reps will conduct a sniff test at the end of the day Thursday to determine if the aerating skiff remedy is working and whether it should run through the weekend.

Paul Wellman

Adult Killdeer with chick.

Zachary said that in 2009 the smell lingered for about a week. According to a server at Stella Mares — the French restaurant on the northeast shore of the lake that’s right in the path of the stench when it’s blown by onshore winds — we’ve entered Day 11. The problem hasn’t affected business, he said, but staff are certainly looking forward to fresher air sometime soon. Zachary said she’s fielded many calls from curious and annoyed residents.

Parks and Recreation has drawers full of possible solutions to the smell problem — solar radiators, microbial remediation, a permanent aeration system, etc. — but a dwindling budget and constant funding cuts make them all unfeasible for the time being, said Zachary. She noted that while the lake is technically “natural,” it’s been so artificially modified by man over the years that it’s no longer able to self-regulate without serious intervention.

Zachary explained that efforts were made recently to improve the lake’s water flow and circulation that, officials hoped, might have avoided the odor. The Parks and Recreation Department just finished the first phase of a five-year plant management plan, removing vegetation blocking culverts, scooping up floating plant life, and trimming back overgrown foliage. The work will continue, she said, while longer-term water quality and restoration options are examined.

"The Bird Refuge was originally a salt marsh that received fresh water from Sycamore Creek, but railroad construction in the 1880s rerouted the creek. Now, the only “fresh” water that enters the lake is runoff and rainwater."

Novel Idea: How about rerouting some of Sycamore Creek into it like it was in the first place? Seems there are quite a bit of creek restoration projects going on around here anyway.

Green plants are net producers of O2, right? So, how can they run out of oxygen simply by proliferating? I googled "eutrophication hypoxia" and **eventually** found a site that purports to actually explain. It said that bacteria (presumably aerobic ones) use up O2 by metabolizing dead algae. But what killed the algae? New growth shades out old growth? It's not lack of O2, since chloroplasts can (?) provide mitochondria with all the O2 they can use.

This is the $130,000/yr city employee Zachary who advertised on the internet for volunteer trail clearers and gave us a major forest fire!! Now her plan to clear water plants at the bird refuge, just completed, probably released tons waste plant materials into the water at a time when sunlight and water temperature are at a maximum. What kind of management are we buying??

I go by every day. I think it is actually getting worse. Wait till some of the fish start dying and floating to the top and rotting... mmmm....that ought to just add to the aroma. I wonder if the boat thing is working or just stirring up the pooh!

"...energy from light is absorbed by proteins called photosynthetic reaction centers that contain chlorophylls. In plants, these proteins are held inside organelles called chloroplasts...."

So, the chloroplasts are more like containers of the oxygen-producing process, rather than the actual producers...but, semantically, I don't think it matters.

Also, the mitochondria perform respiration, but I don't think they take the oxygen directly from the photosynthetic reaction. And, this is completely a guess, but I'm thinking that the organism(s) cannot perform both processes concurrently--they either photosynthesize OR respirate. So, any oxygen produced is released (externally), and may or not be fully available for the next respiration cycle, and therefore would not amount to "all the O2 they can use".

"It is true algae produce oxygen, but only when there is enough light. Eutrophication reduces the clarity of water and underwater light. In eutrophic lakes, algae are starved for light. When algae don’t have enough light they stop producing oxygen and in turn begin consuming oxygen. Moreover, when the large blooms of algae begin to die, bacterial decomposers further deplete the levels of oxygen. As a result, eutrophication can quickly remove much of the oxygen from a lake, leading to an anoxic — and lethal — underwater environment."

I think the Indy's article was well-written. Note that the technical info in the article was obtained by quoting professor Cooper and Zachary.

"Now her plan to clear water plants at the bird refuge, just completed, probably released tons waste plant materials into the water at a time when sunlight and water temperature are at a maximum."-- toto1

As I recall, the project began in the late winter or early spring when the refuge was fenced off for vegetation removal. Like building a house, you can't always time a project perfectly (e.g. to avoid rain, etc.).

Fortunately, the smell hasn't been noticable from East Beach so far, probably since we've mostly been getting onshore or westerly winds.

"Seems there are quite a bit of creek restoration projects going on around here anyway."-- bimboteskie

There was a recent City Council decision not to spend Measure B (Creek Restoration) funds on the refuge. The reason was work on the refuge was considered not to be consistent with what the voters wanted those recurring bed-tax-generated funds to be used for:

Why is everyone focused on end of pipe solutions? Stop putting all the nutrients in it in the first place. Maybe people who live in the watershed that runs into it need to take some responsibility and start thinking about how to minmize nutrient run-off. Same thing happens next to greenhouses in Carp. Ever noticed even a small pool of water near the greenhouses? Full of green algal growths. Sucking oxygen...